COVID-19: HRD Min Appeals Cos to Not Pull Campus Placement Offers

HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhiyal 'Nishank' on Monday, 6 April, appealed to companies to not withdraw any job offers made to students in campus placements due to the economic slowdown created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“To ease the worries of graduating students about placements, I have appealed to companies to not withdraw any job offers made to students. The government is working to ensure that the COVID-19 situation does not have a long-lasting affect on the economy. It will be unfair not to hire these students who are actually bright and can contribute to pulling the country out of this situation,” Nishank said.

The minister’s appeal came after a few job offers at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) got revoked due to uncertainty among companies in view of the coronavirus pandemic.

Nishank had last week directed directors of 23 IITs to ensure that campus placements are not affected due to the situation.

The All IITs' Placement Committee (AIPC) had also reached out to all the companies that visited for campus recruitment, requesting them not to rescind placement offers made for the academic year 2019-20.

IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao, had also issued a public appeal last week to all recruiters. Rao argued that since all IITs strictly follow the equal opportunity principle (one candidate, one job), withdrawing an offer would mean students “will end up not having any job right now”.

“We all understand these are difficult times. But please be considerate to keep your promises. A few months of delay may be fine. Please do not complicate the lives of these brightest children in an already complex environment. If at all, they are capable of getting you out of recession faster than you can imagine,” he wrote in his appeal shared on social media.

The death toll due to the novel coronavirus pandemic rose to 111 and the number of infections climbed to 4,281 in the country on Monday registering a record jump of 704 cases in 24 hours, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The active COVID-19 cases stood at 3,851, while 318 people were either cured or discharged and one had migrated, the ministry stated.

According to the data updated at 6 pm, 28 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours - 21 from Maharashtra, two each from Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, and one each from Punjab, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh.